1. Darwin's Nightmare was directed by Hubert Sauper and released in 2004.
2. This film was incredibly multidimensional and sobering, but the main points of the film were centered around Lake Tanzania and the extreme environmental degradation in the Tanzania region of Africa. The story in interlaced with details about the war in Sudan, prostitution, extreme poverty, HIV-AIDs, unsustainability of the fishing industry, drug usage and crime. Incredibly enough, it is all linked to the situation revolving around Lake Tanzania and it's fish population. At some point a random "experiment" was carried out that introduced a new variety of fish to the lake. This fish destroyed the incredible ecosystem and biodiversity that had flourished in the lake for millions of years. This region of Africa, known to be the "birthplace of mankind" is now reduced by extreme poverty and the effects of the fish industry in the region.
3. This film had the most sustainability problems associated with it out of any of the films I have viewed thus far. Many of the discussed issues are interrelated so I tried to organize them in a cohesive fashion:
Market Effects: The fishing businesses are thriving in this area, although everyone notices this and tries to get in on the trend. Due to the unsustainability of the fishing industry, if everyone decided to go into the business, you'd obviously run into an ecological wall at some point where there would be no more fish to catch.
Job Reliance: On a similar line of thought, most of the laborers in the fish industry are intricately linked to the industry because of the lack of jobs in the area. The man who spoke who was in the upper management (had a singing fish in his office) even said that without the industry, the people in the region would be even more significantly impoverished. The majority of these people were living on less than one dollar a day, I can't imagine what their wages at these factories even were.
Poverty and Education: Poverty seems to be a sustainability problem in itself. Often times poverty leads to a lack of education and other important factors that can allow a person to make their situation better. Eliza spoke about about how she needed more "educations" to better herself and learn about computers, but unfortunately that opportunity was just not there for her. One part of the movie that really interested me was when they were hanging the fish carcasses from the wooden posts. This part of the film really confused me because I wasn't sure why they were doing that, but in line with that same segment they introduced the idea of famine in Tanzania. If they knew that by composting the waste from the fish plants in the proper manner they could produce incredible soil, would that change the famine situation? The film Dirt, outlines a simple 8-month long process for taking fish remains and creating nutrient rich soil. Would education change this?
European Influences: The film drew out the effect of European trade and the social dynamic with pilots as a sustainability problem with many facets, which I have broken down below.
War in Sudan: The European pilots that flew down to retrieve fish often times were dropping off weapons that were used in other parts of Africa in the Congo for war. Europe provided weapons to Africa essentially in exchange for food.
UN Aid System and Job Security: Many of the people in Africa see war as a good thing because it provides jobs. The security guard spelled out the scenario where war would provide him a job, and that if he has to kill people because of war he would to feed his family. He didn't seem to have any sort of idea what he was "fighting for," just that in war, you kill. The UN Aid System will provide aid to countries in Africa who are at war more readily than countries at peace. This only stimulates countries to create conflict, how does that make any sense?
Prostitution: The European pilots provide an excellent market for young girls to become prostitutes. This affects the spread of AIDS in the region among other diseases.
Drugs: Young children in the area have discovered that by melting the packaging used for fish packing, that they can get high readily. This is tied in with the industries affect on the area. The children become sleepy and are sometimes sexually assaulted while sleeping because the chemical affects impair them from waking.
4. This entire film was both compelling and sobering, although several particular scenes sort of resonated with me as far as being persuasive. I think that the format of the film was great because it gave a “collage” of issues rather than spelling out individually what the issues were. I was able to have a taste holistically of what the film’s creator was trying to convey, without the director telling me right out what his intentions were. There were specific portions of the film that were especially compelling and convincing. First, the director interviewed the fish companies early on in the film and the interview seemed to convey the success of the fishing industry in this area and how it provided a lot of jobs. Then later on in the film that same interview is shown again, this time the fish company conveyed a level of sadness about the competition between fisheries depleting the number of fish. This was effective because in the course of the film the second portion of the interview tied things together nicely. Second, the director introduces “Eliza” as a character early on, then later on in the film reveals that Eliza was murdered by a client. This was effective because I had grown to like her after watching her interact with others and her very personal interview with the director about her education.
5. I was slightly less compelled by a few aspects of the film. The multiple scenes showing the pilots huddled around a camera looking at pictures of different areas wasn’t effective because I really wasn’t sure what it was trying to convey. If it was trying to show that the pilots were very worldly and made stops at many locations, I felt that the point had been made already in other ways. Another portion of the film I wasn’t necessary compelled by was the shots of the small boys sniffing the “glue.” I didn’t feel informed enough to understand what they were sniffing, I thought it was packaging from the fish, but it could have been something else. Either way, I found that to be really interesting, and I was slightly let down that it wasn’t explained more even though there was a lot of interesting footage related to it. 6. This film works best for audiences who are coherent in at least a few issues involving sustainability in the developing world. The lack of explanation on a few issues would make it potentially difficult for a person who is uninformed to follow. I know a little bit about conflict in Africa, but I was still pretty lost at some points. I think this film would be affective for both adults and younger people (although not too young). There weren’t any real “juvenile” aspects (like cartoons, etc) that would turn an adult off to this sort of media. 7. One thing that could have been added to this film to enhance it’s environmental education value would have been just more information regarding some of the issues it addressed. It was very clear that ecologically the lake was really bad. However, other issues such as the war in Sudan, AIDS in Africa, “glue” sniffing, European arms contracts with Africa and the market for fish in Europe could have stood some more background. 8. There were few suggestions for help in this movie. So many systems seem to be broken and it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around any sort of start to making progress on any of the things that were addressed. I think that some serious reformation of the UN needs to occur so there stops being an “incentive” for war in Africa. Education is desperately needed for farmer’s and fishermen alike. Along with that, more job growth and areas where economies can gain wealth and sustain it. These all are “solutions” and they sound so easy on paper, but I know that serious pathways of aid and foreign affairs need to be addressed for anything to change.
9. There were a few points in this movie that I felt the need to dig a little deeper on. Most of the points in this movie were sort of vague, it was put together to give you more of an idea of how things are rather than provide a strict structure.
Since there is little information on the internet to support specific topics in the film, I began to think about particular segments that I thought were interesting or film shots. At this point I realized that the shot of the children watching the film about Jesus had caught my attention, and I began to wonder what religions the people in Tanzania primarily followed, because often time religious beliefs can provide some moral grounding and environmental stewardship initiatives.
Apparently the Roman Catholic diocese has had a presence in this part of Africa since the 1500s. About 1/3 of their population is Christian, and they actually have a wide array of African clergy men. Another 1/3 of the country is Islam, and the remaining 1/3 is of various religious background mostly from indigenous tribal background. (East Africa)
Unfortunately, instead of providing stability to this region through practices of peace and love, it actually fuels conflict. It's strange to me that there is so much conflict in Tanzania and so many issues because compare to the rest of Africa they seem relatively peaceful. That assumption is incorrect however, as proved by the film and the religious tensions that weren't even really mentioned. I'm sure there is a plethora of other issues not even touched upon by the film because the scope didn't allow for it.
1. Darwin's Nightmare was directed by Hubert Sauper and released in 2004.
2. This film was incredibly multidimensional and sobering, but the main points of the film were centered around Lake Tanzania and the extreme environmental degradation in the Tanzania region of Africa. The story in interlaced with details about the war in Sudan, prostitution, extreme poverty, HIV-AIDs, unsustainability of the fishing industry, drug usage and crime. Incredibly enough, it is all linked to the situation revolving around Lake Tanzania and it's fish population. At some point a random "experiment" was carried out that introduced a new variety of fish to the lake. This fish destroyed the incredible ecosystem and biodiversity that had flourished in the lake for millions of years. This region of Africa, known to be the "birthplace of mankind" is now reduced by extreme poverty and the effects of the fish industry in the region.
3. This film had the most sustainability problems associated with it out of any of the films I have viewed thus far. Many of the discussed issues are interrelated so I tried to organize them in a cohesive fashion:
Market Effects: The fishing businesses are thriving in this area, although everyone notices this and tries to get in on the trend. Due to the unsustainability of the fishing industry, if everyone decided to go into the business, you'd obviously run into an ecological wall at some point where there would be no more fish to catch.
Job Reliance: On a similar line of thought, most of the laborers in the fish industry are intricately linked to the industry because of the lack of jobs in the area. The man who spoke who was in the upper management (had a singing fish in his office) even said that without the industry, the people in the region would be even more significantly impoverished. The majority of these people were living on less than one dollar a day, I can't imagine what their wages at these factories even were.
Poverty and Education: Poverty seems to be a sustainability problem in itself. Often times poverty leads to a lack of education and other important factors that can allow a person to make their situation better. Eliza spoke about about how she needed more "educations" to better herself and learn about computers, but unfortunately that opportunity was just not there for her. One part of the movie that really interested me was when they were hanging the fish carcasses from the wooden posts. This part of the film really confused me because I wasn't sure why they were doing that, but in line with that same segment they introduced the idea of famine in Tanzania. If they knew that by composting the waste from the fish plants in the proper manner they could produce incredible soil, would that change the famine situation? The film Dirt, outlines a simple 8-month long process for taking fish remains and creating nutrient rich soil. Would education change this?
European Influences: The film drew out the effect of European trade and the social dynamic with pilots as a sustainability problem with many facets, which I have broken down below.
War in Sudan: The European pilots that flew down to retrieve fish often times were dropping off weapons that were used in other parts of Africa in the Congo for war. Europe provided weapons to Africa essentially in exchange for food.
UN Aid System and Job Security: Many of the people in Africa see war as a good thing because it provides jobs. The security guard spelled out the scenario where war would provide him a job, and that if he has to kill people because of war he would to feed his family. He didn't seem to have any sort of idea what he was "fighting for," just that in war, you kill. The UN Aid System will provide aid to countries in Africa who are at war more readily than countries at peace. This only stimulates countries to create conflict, how does that make any sense?
Prostitution: The European pilots provide an excellent market for young girls to become prostitutes. This affects the spread of AIDS in the region among other diseases.
Drugs: Young children in the area have discovered that by melting the packaging used for fish packing, that they can get high readily. This is tied in with the industries affect on the area. The children become sleepy and are sometimes sexually assaulted while sleeping because the chemical affects impair them from waking.
4. This entire film was both compelling and sobering, although several particular scenes sort of resonated with me as far as being persuasive. I think that the format of the film was great because it gave a “collage” of issues rather than spelling out individually what the issues were. I was able to have a taste holistically of what the film’s creator was trying to convey, without the director telling me right out what his intentions were.There were specific portions of the film that were especially compelling and convincing. First, the director interviewed the fish companies early on in the film and the interview seemed to convey the success of the fishing industry in this area and how it provided a lot of jobs. Then later on in the film that same interview is shown again, this time the fish company conveyed a level of sadness about the competition between fisheries depleting the number of fish. This was effective because in the course of the film the second portion of the interview tied things together nicely. Second, the director introduces “Eliza” as a character early on, then later on in the film reveals that Eliza was murdered by a client. This was effective because I had grown to like her after watching her interact with others and her very personal interview with the director about her education.
5. I was slightly less compelled by a few aspects of the film. The multiple scenes showing the pilots huddled around a camera looking at pictures of different areas wasn’t effective because I really wasn’t sure what it was trying to convey. If it was trying to show that the pilots were very worldly and made stops at many locations, I felt that the point had been made already in other ways. Another portion of the film I wasn’t necessary compelled by was the shots of the small boys sniffing the “glue.” I didn’t feel informed enough to understand what they were sniffing, I thought it was packaging from the fish, but it could have been something else. Either way, I found that to be really interesting, and I was slightly let down that it wasn’t explained more even though there was a lot of interesting footage related to it.6. This film works best for audiences who are coherent in at least a few issues involving sustainability in the developing world. The lack of explanation on a few issues would make it potentially difficult for a person who is uninformed to follow. I know a little bit about conflict in Africa, but I was still pretty lost at some points. I think this film would be affective for both adults and younger people (although not too young). There weren’t any real “juvenile” aspects (like cartoons, etc) that would turn an adult off to this sort of media.
7. One thing that could have been added to this film to enhance it’s environmental education value would have been just more information regarding some of the issues it addressed. It was very clear that ecologically the lake was really bad. However, other issues such as the war in Sudan, AIDS in Africa, “glue” sniffing, European arms contracts with Africa and the market for fish in Europe could have stood some more background.
8. There were few suggestions for help in this movie. So many systems seem to be broken and it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around any sort of start to making progress on any of the things that were addressed. I think that some serious reformation of the UN needs to occur so there stops being an “incentive” for war in Africa. Education is desperately needed for farmer’s and fishermen alike. Along with that, more job growth and areas where economies can gain wealth and sustain it. These all are “solutions” and they sound so easy on paper, but I know that serious pathways of aid and foreign affairs need to be addressed for anything to change.
9. There were a few points in this movie that I felt the need to dig a little deeper on. Most of the points in this movie were sort of vague, it was put together to give you more of an idea of how things are rather than provide a strict structure.
Since there is little information on the internet to support specific topics in the film, I began to think about particular segments that I thought were interesting or film shots. At this point I realized that the shot of the children watching the film about Jesus had caught my attention, and I began to wonder what religions the people in Tanzania primarily followed, because often time religious beliefs can provide some moral grounding and environmental stewardship initiatives.Apparently the Roman Catholic diocese has had a presence in this part of Africa since the 1500s. About 1/3 of their population is Christian, and they actually have a wide array of African clergy men. Another 1/3 of the country is Islam, and the remaining 1/3 is of various religious background mostly from indigenous tribal background. (East Africa)
Unfortunately, instead of providing stability to this region through practices of peace and love, it actually fuels conflict. It's strange to me that there is so much conflict in Tanzania and so many issues because compare to the rest of Africa they seem relatively peaceful. That assumption is incorrect however, as proved by the film and the religious tensions that weren't even really mentioned. I'm sure there is a plethora of other issues not even touched upon by the film because the scope didn't allow for it.References:
"East Africa Living Encyclopedia." African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania. Web. 05 Nov. 2010. <http://www.africa.upenn.edu/NEH/treligion.htm>.
"Peace Building in Tanzania." Caritas. Web. 5 Nov. 2010. <http://www.caritas.org/activities/peace_reconciliation/PeaceTanzania.html>.